As we look to the future, maximizing the positive impact of AWE's work remains a priority. Our Train-the-Trainer (TTT) program has been equipping women with the skills to teach our Artistri Sud Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASSET) to fellow community members since 2016. While this initiative has made significant strides in enhancing the capabilities of graduates, we recognize the opportunity to exponentially scale our impact!
In 2025, we will develop and pilot a new and improved TTT program for 50 women farmers in. The model and approach have been defined, and work on curriculum design has begun. Raising awareness about the potential of this new TTT approach is crucial to gaining funding to reach more women in need.
Understanding the Current Landscape
The TTT program has successfully operated for five years, cultivating a dedicated group of graduates capable of planning and delivering the ASSET program within their communities! This cadre of highly skilled graduates has gone on to achieve impressive results, such as leading a committee which brought potable water to communities, becoming president of a municipality, teaching and mentoring hundreds of cooperative members, and more. However, opportunities to independently replicate the effective entrepreneurship and leadership program have been rare. Graduates have struggled to raise funding and other foundational elements in order to deliver full programs autonomously, limiting the scale of impact.
Because this flagship program has been so successful in achieving key outcomes related to revenue generation and women’s empowerment, finding ways to expand its reach is a priority.
What if we re-envisioned the entire ASSET program as a comprehensive Train-the-Trainer initiative?
By merging entrepreneurship education with leadership and facilitation skills, we can empower participants to not only learn the content they need to grow their enterprises and incomes, but also to become effective trainers themselves, and disseminate their experience and knowledge to others in need.
The Dual-Purpose Program Structure
The reimagined ASSET program will maintain its essence as a 7-day intensive retreat, focusing on vital subjects such as accounting, bookkeeping, and sales. Raising awareness about women’s rights is also key to empowering women to step into their roles as leaders of their enterprises, their households and their communities. However, in line with the new TTT model, each module will also integrate facilitation skills.
This dual-purpose structure will enable participants to graduate with the ability to teach others, spreading the knowledge within their communities. Peer-to-peer learning also ensures that knowledge is sustainable and replicable. Upon completion, graduates will deliver relevant modules to community workshops, reaching women who otherwise would not have had access to this critical content.
Our TTT program will support 50 women farmers to build businesses, increase revenue, and improve living conditions.
We are currently seeking local partners.
We are currently seeking local partners in south east asia and parts of Africa who are motivated to offer this training opportunity to their communities, and who meet the relevant criteria, such as:
Target beneficiaries rely for food and income on agriculture.
The women farmers in question are farming sustainably currently, or are in a transition to sustainable farming, and have completed a minimum of 60% of the process.
The target women farmers are motivated to improve their annual revenue streams to support their families through income generation; most will already be involved in small-scale farming but will face challenges with scaling business operations; some may be working in food transformation.
The women who participate in our training will commit to further training 10 members of their communities.
With this built-in community network, we can increase our impact 10-fold, going from 50 to 500 women!
Accessing our Level of Impact and Benefits
Women
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Community
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Global
Data shows that when women gain financial autonomy, they spend their money on education and nutrition for their children. Outside the family unit, women affect change by spreading their positive impact and knowledge within local communities. At the final level, encouraging sustainable modes of agriculture contributes to environmental change globally.
Women are crucial participants in biodiversity and nutrition. Focusing on sustainable forms of farming, such as regenerative agriculture, results in greater overall health for the environment. Globally, women are pioneers of biodiversity through their cultivation of crop resilience.
This innovative TTT approach promises several benefits:
Increased Accessibility: Community-based workshops will make learning opportunities more accessible for women who cannot participate in a 7-day retreat.
Empowerment Through Knowledge: More women will gain access to essential skills relevant to their farms and businesses, fostering a stronger network of empowered individuals.
Pre-existing Networks: By training women leaders, we ensure sustainable support systems that enhance community resilience and cooperation.
Conclusion
Reimagining our ASSET program as a dual-purpose Train-the-Trainer initiative maximizes our impact! We're excited to pilot this new program, and expand the scale of our impact.
As we embark on this journey, we invite our community of supporters to join us in making this vision a reality. Together, we can foster an environment where women thrive, contribute, and lead within their communities!
Stay tuned for updates on our pilot program as we strive to empower women and create lasting change!
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